kiji Geoffrey Batchen’s “Burning with Desire”: The Conception of Photography
Geoffrey Batchen's Burning with Desire is a conceptual archaeology of photography. This analysis breaks down its 4 core concepts: 1) Photography existed as a social "desire" long before its 1839 naming; 2) Deconstructing the single-inventor myth (Daguerre, Talbot) by emphasizing multi-point synchronicity; 3) Merging conceptual history with a material turn, focusing on vernacular objects; 4) Challenging the "index" theory (Krauss) with a composite model of concept, institution, and desire.